Work & Mat Leave

I know this might be a bit early, but the other day I had a meeting with my boss about what's going to happen when I'm gone.
I'm an office manager, and our local internal auditor. There is no one else in our office who's trained to do my job - the closest is one of our Admin's in one of our other offices, but even she doesn't do half as much variety of work as I do, and the closest experienced auditor to take over my work load is our quality manager in Toronto.

So, back to my meeting with my boss. He said that he'd have more info when we meet next month, but at the moment, they're NOT planning on filling my position while I'm off!
I'm in Canada, so my mat leave is 1 year - and that entire time they're planning just to pass off my workload to either the Admin's in our other offices in this region (and they're already crazy busy with their own offices, let alone taking on all the responsibilities of my office!). Unfortunately that still leaves an empty spot in my office here for a full year, and no one knows (or is willing to learn) what to do.

My boss wants me to have everything ready (that includes 3 audits, getting an entire program completed and online, and getting everything here running efficiently without me in addition to my usual day to day work) by the Christmas holidays "just in case" something happens and I need to go off on leave sooner than planned.

I also have to give them written notice by mid September as to when I plan on starting my mat leave (we have to give 4 months advance notice to our HR dept).

So other than venting about how ridiculous upper management's decision is, I guess I'm wondering what's the plan at your work place?
Are they bringing in someone to cover you while you're off? Are they passing your workload off to others for the duration of your leave and just leaving your spot empty? How close to your due date are you expecting to work until?

:lurk: I get 90 days with 60% pay off for mat leave. Since we need my paycheck, I will be scooting back to work as quickly as I can. I spoke to my boss about me leaving already, even though I'm not due 'til April. I, like you, am the only person trained to do what I do in my location. They HAVE to fill my spot as I have vendors everyday to be checked in. I do have a backup...sort of, but she'll be the one taking my place. I'm hoping to convince DH that I need to be a SAHM. LOL

I just went on leave Thursday - was planning on Friday, but doctor wanted me done. I get short term disability for 6 week at 67%, plus am using a few weeks of vacation I saved. I will get about 9 weeks. They are bringing someone in from another office to take my place while I'm off.

I get 6 months full pay with the further option of 3 months statutory which is like 35% of my wage :-0 so will have to go back at 6 months as I am the main ? earner although when I do go back I will be working 3 1/2days and 2 full days.
I hope they are replacing me and I hope they realise how hard I work and how much I do when I am gone.

Erica, (I have family in Jersey Shore...it's a small world!), in the states, you are also entitled to 12 weeks of FMLA for the birth of a child if you're worked with your company long enough to qualify so don't forget about that too.

I'm a SAHM but since DH is doing construction now, I've thought about picking up a temp job over the holidays that should be more than done by the time the baby arrives. So for me, I don't need to make any special provisions or anything and I'm pretty happy about that. I do miss working but I do not envy the corporate red tape!